When his father died as a teenager, he decided to visit the famous mountains and rivers in person. But he didn't dare to mention it when he thought that his mother was old and no one was taking care of her at home.
After all, his heart was detected by his mother. When his mother learned that he had such a wish, she said to him, "Men are ambitious in all directions. How can they stay at home for me and be chickens under the fence and ponies in the stable?" His mother prepared luggage for him and sewed a travel crown for him. With the enthusiastic support of his mother, Xu Xiake's determination to travel far is even stronger.
At the age of 22, Xu Xiake began to travel away from home. He has been to Taihu Lake, Dongting Mountain, Tiantai Mountain, Yandang Mountain, Taishan Mountain, Wuyishan Mountain and Wutai Mountain and Hengshan Mountain in the north. Every time he travels home, he will talk to his relatives and friends about the strange customs and thrilling scenes in various places. Others were too scared to speak, but his mother listened with relish.
Later, when his old mother died, Xu Xiake devoted all his energy to the tourism investigation. At the age of fifty, he started a long journey. He spent four years traveling in Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces until Tengchong, the border of China. He traveled across mountains and rivers, went to many inaccessible places, climbed cliffs and visited strange caves in Qifeng. Once he passed a towering mountain and found a cave on the cliff, and there was no road at all. He risked his life, climbed the cliff like an ape and finally reached the mouth of the cave.
On another occasion, when he was in Chaling, Hunan, he heard that there was a hemp leaf cave there. There are dragons or goblins in the cave, and people without magic dare not enter the cave. Xu Xiake doesn't believe in fairies. He paid a high price to hire a local as a guide to visit the cave. When he was about to enter the cave, the guide asked him who he was. When he knew that Xu Xiake was an ordinary scholar, the guide backed away in fear and said, "I thought you were a mage, so I dared to go into the cave with you." It turns out that you are a scholar, so I won't take the risk. "
Xu Xiake didn't give up, and carried the torch into the hole with his servant. When people in the village heard that someone had entered the cave, they all flocked to the cave to watch the fun. Xu Xiake wandered around the cave for a long time until the torch was almost burnt out. People around the cave were very surprised to see them safely out of the hole. They said, "We waited for a long time and thought you must have been eaten by a demon."
When Xu Xiake roamed the southwest, besides a servant, he was accompanied by a monk named Wen Jing. On one occasion, when they were on a boat in Xiangjiang River, they met robbers and their luggage and belongings were taken away. I heard that the monk died halfway because of injury. Finally, even his servant left him and ran away. But these setbacks did not shake his determination to explore nature.
During the trip, Xu Xiake will record in detail what he saw and heard that day before he rested every night. Even on camping days in barren hills and wild forests, he always squatted on his luggage and kept a diary by the campfire.
After his death in A.D. 164 1, Xu Xiake left a lot of diaries, which were actually the records of his geographical investigation. After on-the-spot investigation, he corrected the mistakes recorded in the geography books in the past and discovered the geographical phenomena that no one recorded in the past.
Like ancient geography books, Minjiang River is the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. After investigation, Xu Xiake found that the upper reaches of the Chu River are not Minjiang River, but Jinsha River. For another example, when he visited Daying Mountain in Tengchong, Yunnan, he found the remains of volcanic eruption there. What he visited most during his trip was karst phenomenon. In Qixingyan, Guilin, he recorded various stalactites, stalagmites, stalactites and other landforms there in detail. This is the earliest record of studying karst phenomenon in the world.
Conclusion People compiled Xu Xiake's diary into Xu Xiake's Travels. This is not only a precious document of ancient geography in China, but also an excellent literary work. This book records in detail what Xu Xiake saw and felt, which provides a powerful verification for future generations to explore nature.